This paper presents a potential periodization framework for the systematical study of the Spanish American Independence process, mainly that of New Granada. It approaches three fundamental issues: the crisis of the Spanish Monarchy; the birth and  transformation of American autonomism and the subsequent insurgent independentism, and the rise of republican nationalism. This approach pays attention to the relevance of long duration historical precedents and gives interpretative importance to the problem of identity as well as individual leadership (Santander and Bolívar). Finally, this paper argues that the use of periodization goes beyond the methodological and should serve as the basis for a critique of the nationalist ideology and the Eurocentric paradigm, which prevent the construction of a  totalizing Spanish American history.